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We arrived in Perth looking forward to it being our home for the next 4 months – although this was all dependent on whether we would find jobs and a roof over our head (in the small window of time that we had!).
On our first night we had our first experience of couch-surfing (kipping in some randoms house for free) when the lovely Maria picked us up from the airport, gave us a quick tour of the city and then took us back to our digs for the night. Our hosts were really friendly and Maria’s husband even welcomed us with some lethal shots of vodka back from his home in Serbia!
The next day it was time to hit the hostel life again and start the flat/job search. We booked into a hostel in Fremantle which is a small town on outskirts of Perth with a kind of Mediterranean feel to it! In between our frantic job searching we took time out to watch the big Royal Wedding – everyone in the hostel gathered round to watch it on the big screen, it was one of the few moments we felt proud to be a ‘Brit’. This
ofcourse didn’t last long and was over-shadowed the following night when we were able to watch a live feed of the mighty Pars winning the league – que the cheap bubbly getting popped!!!
After a celebratory weekend in Fremantle it was time to hit the big city so we booked into what we can only describe as the worst hostel we have experienced (and we have been in some belters!). Shortly after arriving we were informed we couldn’t check in until later because ‘they had the bed-bugs’ . . . hmmn not exactly the welcome we were looking for, if we hadn’t already paid for the week up front we would have been out of there! Unfortunately, things went from bad to worse when that night in our 12 bed dorm we were treated to a live s*x show on the opposite bunk!! We’d now seen (or should we say heard) it all now! Just in case we thought we had dreamt this happening we were treated to another show the next evening!!
Lucky for us we soon got the good news we had been praying for!! Paul had a job to start the following week and we
also found ourselves a gorgeous wee hoose to stay in. Our digs now went from the lowest of the low to a smashing pad in the trendy suburb of Mount Lawley. The night we moved in it felt like Christmas had come early!!!
Unfortunately it wasn’t Christmas that had come early, that week Paul turned (cough, cough) the big 30! Delighted to have our own place to celebrate, Tina took advantage by cooking up a storm in the kitchen (and actually baked a cake for the first time in her life!). Since it was a school-night we decided to celebrate properly at the weekend heading for a tasty Indian meal and a few drinks at the nearby aptly named ‘Flying Scotsman’ pub!!
After a shaky couple of weeks where we seemed to lurch from crisis to crisis we have somehow managed to land on our feet in our new home of Perth. The city is pretty laid back and seems quite behind more developed areas in a good way – it almost has more of a big-town atmosphere which suits us fine! There seems to be loads of Irish and Scots over here so it’s clearly the place
people come to from the other side of the pond!
Now that we are both working again, its time to grin and bear the 9-5 life for a while so we can save for the final leg of our trip. The famous blog will probably dry-up for a bit but as soon as we hit the road we will be sure to let you know . . . . Stay tuned! 😉
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Dave Barnes
non-member comment
Perth
Glad you guys have found a nice play to stay, sounds very cosy and must be heaven going from the ridiculous to the sublime with that nasty hostel in mind. You've both done so well finding jobs and that should help the finances a whole lot, nice 1. Betty and I are so excited about having you here in New Jersey and now it seems a lot closer not just in the distant future. Hope things continue to go your way and stay safe guys. Dad.